Sunrise
by DanSRose
Summary: Warning: After X2. Some see a time to grow and begin something new. An X-Men romance. Please R
1. Sunrise

Disclaimer: All of this is Stan Lee's and Bryan Singer's fault. They own this and this possible storyline, not me.

Disclaimer 2: If you have not seen X2, but want to and not be surprised, stop here. This takes place after the movie.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

The flash came again. The screaming nightmare. Over and over, just repeating itself. It is different now then it was before. This time they hurt much more.   
  
He gets flashes of the Weapon X Project. The tank, filled with its toxic green liquid, with the tube and wires filling his bones with the precious adamantium. Men- they were all men- monitored him, scratching their heads and clipboards with their pens. His X-gene healed his body as he became the perfect weapon, but they could not break his wild spirit. That was all he had. It kept him alive during the experiment, after the experiment, and presumably before. Then, it flashed to something new. Her standing next to him as the one who he thinks he loved sacrificed herself. He sees the door shut, the plane buckle backwards, water almost slamming into the plane, then she stopped it. She sent them away, him away. But a hand squeezed back as a heard the second scream of her name. Scott gave the first. Then, as the dream ended, he saw the bright blue water turn to green as the squeezing in his hand snapped back to the awful pain as the metal screamed around and through his bones.   
  
Logan cursed as he woke. The younger students in their room down the hallway giggled. They needed a reason to smile and this was the best way to do it. And it was also the only way they could make a joke on Logan's behalf.   
  
Stryker made him. But that is not quite right; he remade him, a rebirth like a phoenix, rising from the ashes from whatever his old life was, into this new jewel where he lived with his friends. Before the metal was painfully grafted onto his bone, it seemed he had to have endless darkness. Here at the academy, he had possibility for happiness. "Had" being the key word. But now, three months after the tragedy, it felt like he had nothing.   
  
But, he still had the phantom feeling of that day in his hand. That had not left. It still made him tingle.   
  
Shirt on, he left his room. He had gone two two-week trips on Scott's bike. Nothing happened, he just needed to breathe. Scott did not care. Ororo tended to him with Kurt, who were apparently becoming very close. Kurt is now the new professor of religion studies and German. He also instructs with Storm how to survive in the Danger Room. Scott helps sometimes, when he can. No one has been forcing him; not the Professor nor Ororo.   
  
Logan made his way down the hallway, towards the kitchen. This was his nightly routine. Blinky was in front of the TV, with a book next to him now. For the months he has been here, he never asked Blinky his proper name or his real name, the one Blinky deserves. Logan really does not care either way. Sanford & Son, I Love Lucy, CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, FX, The Three Stooges, ER, The Critic, The Twilight Zone. It got him sick and it left him with the question of how did Blinky not throw that idiot box out the window.   
  
"Hey kid, why don't you just throw that idiot box out the window?" Logan was leaning against the doorway, smirking.   
  
"Because then I would have nothing else to do." Blinky stared at the screen. Turning slightly, he said, "I've already read all books here."   
  
"Ah. I'll get you a soda." Logan made his way down to the kitchen. Bobby was sometimes there with a pint of Basken Robbins. He liked her, Marie, but things were different now. Rogue was looking everywhere else but at Bobby, worrying about the school, how Scott is, where John is, and putting an extra eye on Logan. He is a good kid. Smart, funny, he'd watch your back in a fight, a good icemaker. He'd be great at party. 

"Don't bother," Blinky said. "I don't want to wait for it."  
  
Turning the corner, Logan got a surprise and that was not easy. Marie was in Bobby's spot with Bobby's ice cream with Bobby's spoon   
  
"Hey. Can't sleep?"   
  
"Darlin', I'll give the easy and just say yes. You feeling alright?"   
  
"Logan, I wanted to talk to you. I've been feeling ... odd."   
  
"Odd? Sick odd or other odd?"   
  
She smiled. He blushed, but his facial hair covered it. "Other odd. It's almost a good thing, but I'm not sure." She leaned in, with an anything-but-coy smile. "It was my birthday last week. I wanted to tell someone and the girls and Bobby and everyone else would make a big stink about it. I wanted to tell you because, you know, you're special. You were first mutant I met and the first and only I really trust."

Now, he could not hide his rosy cheeks. "Thanks, doll. So how are you? Eleven, twelve?" He made a funny. Give him credit; humor is not his domain.

Her eyes locked onto his. "Eighteen, Logan. I'm the oldest kid here. I'm staying though. I think I'm needed. I like that feeling, you know?"

"I know. I'm getting that feeling right now." He looked around the room, stretching. "Here at the school, it's becoming home. I like that."

"Logan." She licked the spoon clean, in a less than subtle manner. "That's not quite what I meant."

"Huh." Unfortunately, out of the two possible right answers, he gave the second and lesser one. But, after the spoon, it was the only he could give.

"Logan. I trust you. You are the one person I can always count on. Scott's a wreck, Jean's gone, Ororo is busy with either Nightcrawler or the school, and the Professor has too many secrets."

"Like I have none?"  He was getting nervous. A nervous wolverine is a scary thing to watch.

"That's different. You are not hiding them." The dark wave came on cue over her face. "Something bad is going to happen soon. It's too quiet." A turn and a look. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

"Marie, I'm not stupid. I know what you are trying to say, and I'm saying it can't be. You are always ending up in trouble and I am-"

"Save it, Logan." And she kissed him. A short one, enough to make him dizzy, but only half of it was from her draining powers. 

He forced, with his entire will, away. "Kid, don't. Just don't. It's not you. I'm breaking it down, all by myself, the mental block that is in my head. I seem to have the tendency to," he paused, a dark, empty memory floating back and fading, "to kill the people I love." 

"Logan, it does not matter. Dammit!" She turned to leave and promptly stopped. "We are all stuck here in this place. Scott with his guilt, Xavier with his mission, you with your stupidness."

"And you with your stubbornness, Marie. You are eighteen. I could be easily over one hundred. I have metal claws. You cannot touch another living being without draining the life-force out of them."

"You think I care? You think I have not thought about that? It is my waking thought and the last thing to go through my head before I go to sleep. I need you." Her gloved hands, protected arms sloped down around his neck. 

"I know. That is why I have to go. I just have to get out." 

She almost laughed. "No." She started to giggle. "No. I'm not letting you. I finally figured you out. You go after what you can't have and when you get it, you run away. If something goes wrong, you run. If something good happens, you run. Well stop it. Your home is here. And I am here."

"I have to go. I have to go back to the lake. I- Scott has suffered enough and needs closure. Someone has to check if anything or anyone is left at Alkali Lake. I need a new beginning at wherever I started." 

"I'm not letting you go. I will touch if I have to, to stop you." Her glove was already off, ready for anything.

"I know. I want you to come." He took her with their open palms joining. "Come with me."

Both their hands quaked with light, as they held each other, watching dawn rise, kissing. 

Scott found the note an hour later. It was then he woke up from his three-month retreat from reality. Things were going to become normal again. 

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

They reached the lake the next morning. She held him the entire ride and decided that night, after a day of empty searching, that she would never let go.


	2. Split Milk

One of the boys spilled milk all over the table, which dripped over the side, onto the floor, ruining Kitty Pryde's magnificent "up through the floor" entrance. "Sammy! You better bullet yourself out of here before I catch you! Oh no, my shoes! You're dead, boy!"

I grinned a toothy grin from the corner. I had slept well, again. Blue tail and all.

"Kitty, if you want to find the grace of the universe, you must not get so angry about the little things."

"I'm sorry, Kurt, but you're new shoes did not just get ruined!"

"I would hope not, since I have not seen any shoes that would fit me." Kurt Wagner walked out of the room then. In the Munich circus, good timing was the first lesson learned. 

It had been four days since Logan and Rogue took off, leaving to search for any thing left at Alkali Lake. The younger students, the ones controlled by their teenage hormones, had the right idea about the underlying reasons of why they left. The older ones here, the members of the team, like Scott and Bobby, were in a state of denial. Those like Scott are saying that they are doing necessary recon; a just in case scenario. Those like Bobby, swear that Marie has better taste then a scoundrel like that. I have learned not to tell the "it takes a rogue to love a rogue" joke in front of him. My poor tail.

I have never felt more normal in my entire life. I have been not quite regularly sharing a bed, with nothing sinful happening, of course. Maybe I will ask her to marry me one day.

She tells me I should be on Broadway, singing in a cabaret. I tell her that has been bumped up on my to-do list, as the number one on the list was met in church, so to speak. Her ears go pink when say that. With her head on my lap, I sing her to sleep, just with a variation on the most beautiful word I have learned: Ororo. A new opera every night. The name flows off my tongue like sweet honey.

I teach her faith and trust. She shows me that there is nothing to be afraid of in my own person. No demon is, or has ever been, in me.

This is not much of a story, I know. There is no grief, like with Scott and Jean, or confusion, like with Logan and Rogue. We are happy, and I believe that that is the most important thing. Things do not have to always have to be tragic. Beauty is the natural way of life.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

It is hard to be an outcast living in this school. Even if you happen to be falling in love with a five foot four, blue elf of a man with three digits on each hand and a tail.

It is sort of working. Nothing works all the way and I am counting the days until it falls through. Not that I want it to. I just do not think it has to do. Everything around me has the tendency to fall apart. 

The way Jean and I took in sweet Kurt was how the Professor took me in. That was twenty-four years ago this June and he was able to walk then. I had two jobs: the first was being a worshipped and imprisoned by an African tribe and working as a thief for food and clothes by night. Goddesses do not need food, or water, or a change of clothes, so I starved. All they needed me to do was to serve and create rain. The Professor found me when I flooded the capital after being arrested, drowning many and throwing the city into panic. It was a short way from Jerusalem, where he was working with Erik Lehnsherr. He found me; actually he led me to him, after I blew up the jailhouse. He calmed me and brought me here, showing me what we were, Erik with us all the way, whispering his "mutants are homo superior and there is a war coming" dogma to me. Parts of me believed it, parts of me still do. During these last few months, all of those things Erik told me seem more and more true. We need to protect ourselves, our own kind. 

I know I will never leave the Professor or the mansion; I keep my humanity here. I think something else I am keeping is here too. Something new. 

I love him and he loves me. I think it is odd that the only one who can make me feel human is someone who looks and acts so inhuman. He is much more than human. I inspire him, with my white hair and my eyes that go clear when they need to be. A freak. Someone beautiful loves a freak. 

But I cannot worry too much about Kurt. I know he will always be there. I have to worry about everything else here. The students are always on the verge of breakdown, crying over boyfriends, television shows. I hear it is regular high school antics. Professor Xavier is worried about acts of Congress and about his old friend making the next move. He is not concerned about Wolverine and Rogue's unofficial mission. They are doing this for Scott, but I think Logan wants to play hero to Jean. She could not have survived it, but some people need to cling on to hope. Scott is getting better, but that does not really mean anything. Jean's death hit him hard and he does not want to let go. He was safe with her; he feels alone now. In a sense, I guess, he is. I feel he will never heal.

Still, Scott has been less catatonic these past few days. Something about the note Logan and Marie left, their little quest. It gave him hope. The students giggle about it, the note, hinting about what it means. Children always want romance, love. Reality fights it at all costs. It can never happen. Even in fiction, the heroes have conqueror impossible odds to just get kiss. The frog never just falls into the princess's lap. Logan and young Marie are partners in crime, nothing more.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

She is sitting there, across the room, writing in her journal. Looking up every so often, at me, at Scott who began teaching a history lesson, at Professor Xavier, at me. She is concerned; it should not have taken two of our best teammates this long to scout the area. They left with one note and have not given any word on their location or next move. Ororo does not understand it. There are set rules in this world that cannot be broken, as she sees and says it. I reply with a "Is there a breeze in here or was that just you?" or a "Don't stretch for it; let my tail grab it for you."

I know it was Marie who made the first move. Wolverine is too- well, sad to say- thick to realize what is in front of him. My Storm is too, always questioning and on guard. 

Scott keeps looking out at the window. I know he is waiting for Logan and Rogue to return, with good news or any signs. I believe if they have no news and he will live and continue on. He has tasted life again and he likes it. Moving on is the way of life.

There is something that must be shown to her. But I cannot do that. We will wait until they return. Return together, that is. 


	3. Dawn

My fingers slide through her hair. Like a spoon in soft-serve ice cream, it just flows through, like it belongs there. She is asleep, as it was a very long day. We did nothing, nothing immoral and nothing illegal. The illegal activities were yesterday- breaking onto federal grounds, assaulting government guards, exploring the area of the lake. It rose over twenty feet when Stryker's dam broke. 

That is an odd statement: "when Stryker's dam broke". Everything that bastard did was to destroy and maim other life. Well, there is no way he can ever do anything else. He is very dead. She worried when I dropped down to the bottom of the lake from that helicopter we "borrowed". I was only down for fifteen minutes; there was no reason for her to panic. She did handle that helicopter well. But, Stryker is dead, very dead. Still chained to that wall. He's not going anywhere. His files were very useful; I think I almost know who I was. I wish I didn't.

"The files. Ignore the files," she said. "They talk about the past and the past is the past is the past. It only says what was. I like what is and what will be better. Besides, you look cuter when you're not worrying." I knew she read them without her even me telling so. It was the way she looked at me that morning: a little sad, hurt, and confused, all mixed with not caring. She wants me how I am, not whoever I was. I could also tell she read through them because they were in my bag, but at the top. I left them at the bottom. She's no sneak and I hope don't make her one. 

First light. "Logan?" She knows I'm here, but asks it as a question anyway. I think it's a comfort thing. "Yeah, sugar?"

"Are we leaving for home today, tonight, or tomorrow?" Her eyes aren't open, but her nose smells the coffee in the thermos I'm reaching for. It's a bad habit Scott taught her while I gone. Coffee: the stable person's alcoholism. She takes it black, with two sugars. 

"This has cinnamon in it."

"Yeah. I took a packet from that diner we ate at last night and stirred it with some sugar and a bit of milk. I thought you'd like it. Too bad we didn't have any nutmeg." Wow, I'm turning into Martha-freaking-Stuart. "Stop laughing, it's that funny."

"Logan, think back a year and then say what you just said. It really is that funny." She stood, stretching and arching her back. "Tonight, let's head home. I miss my bed." The tips of her fingers tickled the fir tree above, the morning dew giving her the shower she desperately wanted. 

"Sure, but it's still the morning." I don't even feel it as what is part of her takes me away. All care is that she is sinking down on top of me, and that's the last thing I am seeing.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

"Logan, the seat is wet. I am hungry. Where's the next rest stop? I have to use the bathroom. My back hurts. How much longer until we get home. I'm ho-"

"Marie! I get it! You want me to stop for a bit!"

"Took you long enough. There." 

Scott's bike stopped in a clearing, where Rogue took the bike and walked it several feet into woods. No one passing could see it, or her.

"I don't like traveling for hours at a time. I need to lie down." From the giddy mood she was in, she fell back, letting the soft snow catch her. The green stocking cap I bought her after we entered snow country rolled off. "Almost perfect," she said, her eyelids getting heavy and closing. She must have had some of the Professor in her because she knew what I was thinking. "No one should be surprised. Jean and Scott were almost brother and sister when they came to the academy. If they have a problem, it's their problem not ours."

"You are sure smart for whiny little girl." I couldn't help myself. It went against everything I have ever lived by. "I never noticed that your eyes are every color. They're beautiful." 

She smiled and grabbed, pulled my sideburns. "Flattery does not suit you, Logan." 

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

Revenge is a must; no one pulls my sideburns. "LOGAN! Don't ever pop a wheelie on this bike with me again! I swear you will pay for that later. I-"

"We're here." 

The ride up the driveway was the same, except one boy was shooting spikes into the air, aiming at another boy with wings who was catching them. Little Jubilee was tanning on the lawn with Kitty, only because another kid was heating up the early evening sky into the fourth of July at noon. 

"Everything is the same," she whispered in my ear.

"Good. You relax I'll tell people."

I didn't realize it, but the on the cheek I gave her as walked inside told everyone by itself. That and Xavier scanned my mind as I opened the door and Charles is a gossip whore. Wouldn't you be with telepathy?


	4. The Meaning of Life at 3:34 AM

*click*

"The time is 3:34 in the AM on what was Tuesday the 26th. Two of my children have came home this afternoon and they came home in love.

"I foresaw this, although it is not part of powers. Just a little gift I picked over the years instructing and watching over children. It was the relationship that everyone was betting on. After telling Logan how happy we are all for him, I scolded him for abducting a student, with him staring at me and shooting vile thoughts in my direction. I then debriefed him on what he and young Rogue discovered at the lake. Apparently, Stryker's organization has lived on, though their leader is "very, very dead", as Logan put it. He took too much pleasure in that, I believe. I am glad that his revenge is over before he learned too much from Stryker. I believe I will have to tell him everything soon.

"Rogue, Marie, is absolutely glowing. She confided in me that she has even gotten a sense of how to control her powers. I sensed from her that she has something entirely else in mind, which I really should be dissuading her from doing. However, she legally is an adult and the heart goes where it wants. I believe she will-"

*knock*

"Professor?"

"Yes. Come in Scott."

"Professor, I just talked with Logan and-"

"Scott, you're drunk."

The door slams shut. Audio shows a set of uneven footfalls heading toward the recorder,

"I know. I really needed it. It doesn't affect Logan though. Maybe he has a dependency issue. That's probably why he drinks so much."

"Logan told you, didn't he?"

"About him and Rogue? Yeah, he's really happy. Blushing and everything. He can't stop talking about her and him and how happy they are together."

"Scott, that's not quite what I meant. He told you that there was no sign of Jean."

"He didn't look hard enough. He was too busy playing hanky-panky with Marie. He, he couldn't have checked everywhere."

Crying, coughing, more sobbing. 

"Scott.  There is still a chance. We have rebuilt Cerebro and, if she is out there, we will find her. You know that. You know that we will never stop looking. She was the light within us all."

Sob. "She was my light."

"I know, Scott. I have walked in your shoes once, long long ago."

"Really?" Fifteen seconds of silence. "It's not fair. I know I sound like a spoiled child, but it's not. Logan, with his empty life, and Rogue falls straight into his lap. They go through a bunch of adventures and then they realize that they are meant for each other and then they fall in love only to come back and rub it in my face."

"They are not rubbing anything in anyone's face. They are happy and they want to share it. They have not had an easy life and maybe, just maybe, they want to spread it. They are your friends, Scott, even Logan, and they want you to be happy for them. Trust them, as they trust you." 

"You mean that, don't you? That they trust me, even Logan?"

"Of course, Scott. We are all family here, with our tongues and wings and eye beams and claws and tails. We want each other to be happy, to create a new world where we can simply live and be happy. It's a small wish, but that ends up being the meaning of life. I thought you should learn it early. Consider it an early Christmas present."

"Thanks, Professor." The sound of the door opens, with footfalls going with it. "I think I should go to sleep and think about it."

"Good night, Scott." Steps fall farther away from the recorder. "Oh, and Scott."

"Yes?"

"Ask Ororo tomorrow morning for her hangover cure-all. Believe me- it works."


	5. Stumbling Home

To say that Scott stumbled drunkenly into his room and promptly passed out in his chair waiting for dawn is to say that the sun came up that morning or odd things happened at Xavier's School for the Gifted. The sun always rises and weird things always happen at this school. 

I couldn't sleep last night. I just pretended, mainly because I knew that Logan would be doing rounds the tonight and coming into my room. He fell asleep on my chair, back to the window and facing the bed everything. He must really like me.

Scott's snoring. I think it's cute. Like a lovably uncle or that cute bear cub we saw. I better put a blanket on him or he'll freeze. That's better.

I'm home. I don't think I've ever said that before. Home. It's a pretty word. I never thought about it like that- I guess it's because I've had one. 

It's funny like that. Jubilee said it's like my hair. Funny, but serious and tragic. We're all here because we have nowhere else to go. So, we came here, settled down, and ignored everything around us. We just try and find something, anything, to make us happy. Some of find it, some of us don't. Either way, we're home here.

I like it at night here. Everything is so quiet and the hallways echo. It's like how it is in my head; all the dust settling from today and things calming down just to get stirred up again. Too bad the house can't do what I can do; just shush them up and put the echoes in a box in the back of my mind. Well, I can do that now. I guess it's one of those growth things. Everyone's powers shift and change and adjust according to their own history and biology, or so the Professor says. He said I should be expecting something like this, with my great personal track record for getting into trouble and how I keep over-using my powers in extreme circumstances. Oh well.

~~~~~~X~~~~~~

The kitchen is one of the most interesting places here. Not to say that Cerebro or the Danger Room or our on-campus emergency room are normal, but since we have people from everywhere, food tastes vary. We have Russians, Brits, people from the East coast and West coast of a bunch of continents. And now, since I am in charge of the kitchen and teaching several of the children culinary skills, I guess I'll have to make myself comfortable. That and go shopping for some actual cooking supplies or something that has not passed the expiration date. Who was the last person to buy anything besides soda, ice cream, and cold cuts? Bobby or Scott probably. Most likely both; who else would get eleven different types of ice cream, eleven cases of Dr. Pepper, and several pounds of random meats and cheeses? I guess I'm lucky that they put the ice cream into the freezer.

Ororo seemed surprised when she found out, but that's probably because she saw it, not learned it. Logan gave me a long goodnight kiss in front of her while we discussing business. The room got really cold when he left and that was not because of the uncomfortable silence, or the strange mist that followed when she stormed out of the room. She wasn't jealous; I would know if she were jealous. She is partly inside me, not as strong as Erik, Logan, or John are; we only touched once and it was not strong. She was just surprised. She'll get her turn when someone, probably Kitty, is running late and just happens to run into, or through, the room where her and Kurt are "getting to know each other better". I'd pay to see the look on her face when that happens. Maybe I'll give Kitty a camera if that happens. Wink wink.

The Professor said he wants to the children to learn the art of food without any abnormal assistance, but I say if you got it, flaunt it. 

~~~~~~X~~~~~~

"So, we'll start with southern food. We'll need oil, butter, garlic, peppers, onions, the essentials, blah blah blah," she jotted down as she said listed aloud. "Two pounds of shrimp, two whole chickens, fresh vegetables. They're going to work and enjoy it. Then they'll feed me." She was enjoying herself a little too much, but she had to start somewhere and she made it essential that she going to start as being the fun teacher.

The sound of tearing Styrofoam and the smell of sulfur entered the kitchen. "Good evening, young maiden."

"Hi, Kurt. You don't want to sleep either?"

"Not particularly. My summer Storm was not sleeping well and, unfortunately, it started to snow in the bedroom. Though I have traveled from Bavaria to Sweden, I have never gotten used to the cold. Everyone in the Munich Circus teased me about that: though I was blue, I shivered enough for all the clowns and the trainers combined." His tail swings when he is happy, reminiscing, or experiencing any positive emotion at all. She, on the other hand, blushes the color of a good Pertreuse. 

"I'm just happy to be home. It's not very warm, or fluffy, or food-filled in the wilderness." After checking the fridge again, she only turns to say, "From the looks of it, it's not too food filled here either."

"Yes. Scott and Bobby were doing the shopping lately. Scott has been getting less broody, so I guess this what you call 'binge eating'?"

"Yeah. As one of members of 'girl' species, I am required to go through one of those per week. The good news is I think I am behind." She sighed, the way only a young adult with a lifetime of difficulties and disappointments who just brought something amazing into her life could.

The blue man with a tail grinned back. "Young one, I have seen a great deal with my yellow eyes. I have always been the outcast, believe it or not, even in the Munich Circus. I have rarely had someone to care about, let alone someone or a large group to care about me. I was always the blue freak with a tail." He smiled with his uneven teeth. "Now, I have a family. I get the image that most have here were lacking that as well. Even the Professor."

"I think that's why Charles is so protective of Erik. He's the nearest thing he has to a brother."

The Amazing Nightcrawler cocked his confused. "You call him 'Erik'. You are not afraid of him? Of what he can do?"  
She smiled at her new blue friend. "When things calmed down, after Liberty Island and after Logan left for the first time, the Professor told me that the only things that we are afraid of are the things that do not know or understand. He was talking about mutants and humans and our relationship with them, but it's true for pretty much everything." Looking him in the eye, grinning, she said, "You still don't know what I'm talking about. My power is draining. I drain mutant powers and a person's memory, emotions, behaviors. I've drained Bobby, Jean by accident, Scott once, Logan- well, we'll leave him out of this, even your Ororo, and I've 'borrowed' from Erik, Magneto. I figured out how to shut them out and stop buzzing around in my head, but I can also draw them back and use what was on their minds from when I touched them. So no- I am not afraid of him. In fact, I am pretty sure, if we ever fought him again, I would be the one to take him down. I know him."

Kurt was slightly horrified and it found some way to show on his rune-scarred face. "That seems like the most obscene invasion of privacy."  
"I know," she replied, looking slightly ashamed. "But, I've never pried or gone somewhere in someone's memory that I shouldn't have. The temptation was there -is there- with Logan, to see where is from and who he was, but it's not right and if I do that, then I would be just like Mystique- a big faker, thief, and liar. I'd prefer to be better than that."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room for several minutes. "Well, that was rather uncomfortable," a blushing Rogue said, fighting back the urge to run from the room as fast as possible.

"I know." Kurt pushed the food list Marie was working on. "So, what are you going to have the students make for us tonight?"

"I'm not sure. Something Southern. You've never had real Southern food before, have you? We'll have to fix that right now. A full Louisiana breakfast for everyone. You can help," Marie said with a wink.


End file.
